Sacred Editors

Sacred Editors: Lost Women

This volume uncovers the sacred voices that have been erased, silenced, or forgotten across the world's religious traditions. From prophets and poets to scribes and mystics, it explores how women shaped, preserved, and challenged sacred texts—and how religious memory has too often left them out.

Lost Women Book Cover

Read the book online below, or purchase a print or Kindle edition:

Table of Contents

  1. A Note on Language and Sources
  2. Dedication
  3. Introduction
  4. Prologue: She Who Holds the Ink

    5. Part I: The Women Within

  5. Chapter 1: The Apostle They Erased – Mary Magdalene (Christianity)
  6. Chapter 2: The Nuns Who Sang – The Therīgāthā Poets (Buddhism)
  7. Chapter 3: The Scholar They Constrained – Aisha bint Abi Bakr (Islam)
  8. Chapter 4: From Devotion to Dissent – Hindu Women’s Sacred Agency
  9. Chapter 5: The Prophetesses They Silenced – Miriam and Her Sisters (Judaism)
  10. Chapter 6: Sacred Voices Beyond the Center
  11. Chapter 7: Capstone – What If They Had Been Canon?
  12. Interlude A: The Mystics’ Rebellion

    13. Part II: The Women Around

  13. Chapter 8: Ink and Illumination – Christian Women as Scribes and Mystics
  14. Chapter 9: Guardians of Revelation – Islamic Women as Preservers
  15. Chapter 10: Patrons and Performers – Hindu Women’s Sacred Labor
  16. Chapter 11: The Domestic Torah – Jewish Women as Liturgical Guardians
  17. Chapter 12: Across Mountains and Monasteries – Buddhist Women in Transmission
  18. Chapter 13: Capstone – The Unwritten Archive
  19. Interlude B: Anonymous Hands

    20. Part III: Patterns of Marginalization and Resistance

  20. Chapter 14: The Architecture of Erasure
  21. Chapter 15: The Counter-Tradition
  22. Chapter 16: When Visions Became Texts

    23. Part IV: Recovery and Reclamation

  23. Chapter 17: Archaeological Angels
  24. Chapter 18: Reading Against the Grain
  25. Chapter 19: The Contemporary Conversation
  26. Conclusion – To Be Remembered

    27. Appendices

  27. Appendix A: 100 Women Remembered
  28. Appendix B: Key Manuscript Discoveries and Recoveries
  29. Appendix C: Glossary of Roles and Terms
  30. Appendix D: Further Reading
  31. Appendix E: Discussion & Teaching Guide